Fi is a tricky character. It's interesting how the game designers decided to combine technological/scientific elements into the fantasy-esque world. Of course, this is going even further in Breath of the Wild. But it feels a little strange that a goddess would make a very fancy robot. If the divine is technological, is it divine anymore?
Realism would of course demand it. A goddess can still only create something that follows the rules of the universe. Fi is durable and will always stick to her purpose. Given this line of thinking, it makes sense that the mechanism of her speech could be affected, but there is little reason why her pronounciation would be robotic. That assumes limitations of software – but the design of Fi would probably be limited rather by the limitations of physical design, by hardware.
Anyway, I agree with the choice you made, and I think Fi was pulled off well!
Honestly, there is so much we don't know about Zelda lore right now that it's anyone's guess. They could easily change one detail in Breath of the Wild that could turn Skyward Sword on its head. It may even blur the line between technology and divinity even further. Who knows, apart from all the game theory videos... it might be cool. XD
My idea behind her speech while listening to auditions was, "well, what if The Goddess based Fi's voice off a synthasized version of her own." Which is kind of dumb. But that's why whenever she recites messages written in stone or recovers a messages from "deep within my memory" I always leave out the synthesized effects and just put in some reverb to make it sound pre-recorded. There is no way that this is what the developers intended, but... I like doing it.
As for her personality, I thought about making her full on robotic. But after reading a lot of the dialogue, you really don't feel that.
----Spoiler Warning----
What convinced me was her relation to Ghirahim. Or lack there of I guess.
Both characters are basically just programs made for a single purpose.
To serve their Masters. And for the last few thousand years they've been doing VERY different things. And it shows. BIG TIME. Ghirahim has pretty much lost it. Whether he has "the capacity" for emotion or not, he certainly has crossed a few wires over his many years wandering the surface.
Fi on the other hand, seems more cold, calculated and... Sometimes Lonely. She was trapped in a small room for thousands of years for some kid to come along and save the world.
Like... Mute the audio, go to 7:12 and just read the text.
Compare that to Ghirahim's insane ramblings at the endgame "You petulant brat... You've pushed me
too far. I've waited my whole existence
for this! THIS is MY moment!"
They have similar driving forces. They just manifest in different ways.
I feel like it's a bit of underrated storytelling and the game deserves some credit for it.
I could go on about these two for a while.
(Also, I just got the Ghirahim lines for the finale in from Joshua... Chills.)
